Trapeze

by Simon Mawer (Other Press)

In this enthralling spy novel, Marian, a young Englishwoman, is sent on a secret mission to Vichy France. After a physically and psychologically gruelling training program in the remote mountains of Scotland, she finds herself in Paris, where Nazi officers roam the Métro and she is forced to make a series of split-second decisions about whom she can trust, even at the expense of lifelong alliances. The book is full of the fascinating minutiae of espionage—aircraft drops, code-cracking, double agents, scrambled radio messages. There’s a romance, too, though Mawer isn’t one to dwell on his characters’ inner lives, and Marian, who is “trained to keep secrets,” remains frustratingly unknowable. Still, Mawer exhibits a great feeling for suspense, and produces memorable episodes in dark alleyways, deserted cafés, and shadowy corners of Père Lachaise. ♦

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